


assumptions shouldn't be made

by annamorris



Series: to view without judgement [6]
Category: The Haunting of Bly Manor (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, what if they really went to the boring little pub in bly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-24
Updated: 2020-11-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 20:15:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27701921
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/annamorris/pseuds/annamorris
Summary: The boring little pub in Bly receives some visitors.Prompt-fill from Tumblr: "That's my ex." -- "Well, you better kiss me so they see."
Relationships: Dani Clayton/Jamie
Series: to view without judgement [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2023837
Comments: 9
Kudos: 195





	assumptions shouldn't be made

**Author's Note:**

> Very much un-beta'd and written after surgery, so all mistakes are most definitely my own.

Dani is delightfully warm. 

She’s sitting comfortably in a boring booth at the back of the boring little pub in Bly with her enchantingly boring gardener, and it’s all so wonderfully mundane that she allows herself to forget the world for just this one night. This one boring night, with these boring drinks, and this self-proclaimed boring company that Dani is finding to be anything but. 

Jamie’s laughter comes easily, and it flows over Dani like a warm bath, soothing her aches and pains better than any salve. They’re tucked into a booth in a shadowy corner of the pub, the owner of which Jamie had promised won’t judge them for sitting too close for the social standard so long as their coin is good. The comment and the casual tone with which Jamie had spoken had caught Dani off-guard. 

For the first time, Dani had been struck by her own inexperience, and she had thought guiltily about her lack of consideration for the logistics of being with someone that lay outside of “normal.” 

But, now, with Jamie’s arm draped casually over her shoulder, this feels like the most natural thing in the world. It feels like Dani has found her place. 

_Oh, so this is how this is supposed to feel._

“Oi, you with me?”

“Hmm? Oh, um, yeah, yeah, I’m here,” Dani says, meeting Jamie’s amused grin with one of her own. She thumbs a bit of condensation on her glass. To the ambivalent observer, the gardener seems nonchalant, unbothered, the way she always does. It’s something Dani has come to admire about her.

But, Dani, who, face flushing, would never admit to studying Jamie under penalty of death, notes the tension in her jaw. That Jamie’s index finger, semi-permanently tinged with potting soil no matter how hard she scrubs, is absently picking at the skin on her thumb. Her Chuck Taylor bounces ever so slightly where it’s crossed over her knee. Dani’s brow furrows when she follows Jamie’s line of sight. A woman has just walked in and taken a seat at one of the stools, striking up familiar conversation with the bartender. 

“Who is that?” Dani’s curiosity is innocent enough. She’s hardly left the manor since arriving in Bly. The only townsfolk she’s met are those who are also employed by the Wingraves. 

“No one, Poppins,” Jamie dismisses. 

Dani tilts her head. She’d meant the question as a sincere inquiry of identity, but Jamie appears to take it to mean who is the woman _in relation to Jamie_. And, now, Dani, insatiably attentive, is determined to find out. 

“Well, now you have to tell me,” she pokes. Perhaps, if she had not been two drinks in, she would not have been so bold. But the warmth in her stomach and the heaviness of her eyelids and the sheer joy of not having to think of sleepwalking children have combined and made her brazen. 

Jamie’s surprise glints in her eye and lingers in the gentle quirk of her upturned lip. She leans in so that her breath tickles the shell Dani’s ear. “That,” Jamie whispers, “is my ex-girlfriend.”

Oh.

Dani’s heart drops in her chest, and she can’t quite help the pang of irrational jealousy that shoots through her. It’s foolish, she knows, to assume Jamie sees this, this _thing_ , that they have as anything more than an easy stint. Jamie fancies boredom, her simple life at Bly, but to Dani, this is electric, like every atom in her body is buzzing after being shocked. The complexity of her rising emotions threatens to overwhelm her. Surely, this connection is mutual. It must be. A circuit requires a positive and negative charge for energy to flow. 

When Dani leans in this time, Jamie smells faintly of ale and cedar and a scent Dani can’t identify but finds that she adores all the same. “Well, you better kiss me so she sees.” 

Jamie murmurs something along the lines of, “Don’t have to tell me twice,” before their lips meet. 

When they break apart, Jamie’s hand cups the back of Dani’s head, her pinky tracing soft lines along Dani’s neck. 

“I really like you, you know.” 

Dani hums. “How’s that for boring?”

“Dani Clayton, you, darling, could never be boring,” Jamie says with finality. “Though, I should probably tell you she’s not my ex.” She looks to the woman at the bar. 

Dani pulls back. “No? Then why-?” 

“I was only jokin’. Would’ve explained if you’d given me a second more. Can’t say I’m complaining, though.” Her eyes flick to Dani’s lips, and she watches as Dani casts another sidelong glance across the pub. “Jealous, are we?”

“No!”

“Have’t got anything to worry about, I promise you. Not really my type, anyway.”

“And what is?”

“My type?”

Dani nods, settling back into their earlier, easy rhythm.

“Ah, well, I s’pose I’m rather fond of pretty blonde au pairs.” She winks and plucks at the sleeve of Dani’s brightly patterned blouse. “Even if they dress like somethin’ a kindergartner drew up.” 

Dani swats her hand away. “Rude.”

“You wound me.”

“You lied to me.”

“And I’m very sorry about it.”

“You’re an ass.”

“So they tell me.” Jamie’s smirk is cocky. She relaxes back into the wooden bench, arm still draped loosely around Dani’s shoulders. There is space left for Dani, which she gladly fills, tucking herself neatly into Jamie’s side in their darkened corner of the room.

This is how it’s supposed to feel.

**Author's Note:**

> [feel free to chat or send me a prompt on tumblr](https://moonflowerlesbians.tumblr.com)


End file.
